Shalom and welcome to “The Rock of Israel” International Fellowship. Our sincere hope is that our teaching site becomes a place of fellowship and learning for both Jews and Gentiles who desire to know, love and serve the One True God of the Universe. We are glad that you have found time to join us at our website where we explore the subjects of momentous spiritual significance and delve deeply into the life-changing power of the Word of God.
Our Choice Matters . . .
What we believe and Who we worship matters more than we can even imagine. Our community of faith stands squarely on the bedrock of God’s Holy Word and shoulder-to-shoulder with the faithful remnant of the Jewish people, the only loyal worshippers of the One Living God, the Holy One of Jacob. The most laconic expression of our ministries’ faith is enfolded in Judaism’s core confession, the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deut. 6:4-5)
Although all of us have opinions and thoughts of our own, what truly counts at the end of the day is the opinion and thoughts of the Almighty Creator! This is how His opinion concerning our worship and obedience is expressed through His faithful servant Joshua: “Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD! And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Josh. 24:14-15)
Despite of all the evidence to the contrary, much of Christianity today continues to claim emphatically that they also worship one god. They are in the habit of explaining that although their god is "three persons comprising one deity," it is one god nevertheless. Since our ministries deal with the subject of a three-bodied god of Christianity at length, we will not be unpacking this absurd statement at this time.
However, even if the Church’s desperate claim that they believe in and worship one god, called Trinity, were somehow true it would still run contrary to God’s immutable Word and, therefore, would be completely false. Here is why: Please, notice that in the Shema (Deut. 6), Joshua’s expression of true faith (Josh.24:15) and countless other passages underscoring the same reality, the issue is not monotheism in the abstract but unswerving allegiance in concrete particularity to a very specific God, the LORD God of Israel. Read this statement again and then inquire as to how many churches or other religious bodies on the planet today worship, obey and lead the world back to that particular God.
The sole purpose for our existence and explicit goal of these ministries is to further the Kingdom of the One True and Living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We trust that our mission is totally in line with the mission of Israel and every true Prophet of the Almighty, including Jesus of Nazareth. As a loyal worshiper of the God of Israel Jesus’ message was centered on the Kingdom of the Mighty God of Jacob: “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)
Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus of Nazareth was a faithful Jew and a patriot in Israel! The driving force behind Jesus' life was his zeal for the LORD God of Israel and His unchanging Torah! Just as any other worshiper of HaShem prior to him, Jesus came along and preached to call Israel out of idolatry, polytheism , syncretism and immorality that inevitably accompanies any form of worship save the strict monotheism commanded by the God of the Bible!
The God of the Bible is One. In His infinite wisdom and in accordance to His marvelous plan of Salvation, He chose to reveal Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (see Exodus 3, etc). One of the most consistent Names that the LORD of Heaven applies to Himself is that of “the LORD God of Israel.”
Before I proceed with my message of welcome, allow me to pose a question to you in the light of what I have just said: “How often today do you hear religious groups and spiritual individuals calling the world back to obedience and worship of the God of Jacob? And, why not?”
The Light of the World
The fundamental mission of God’s chosen people is to make Him, His Word and His Character known to the rest of the world. Please, listen to the following passage from Isaiah 42:
“Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it: “I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.” (Is. 42:5-9)
The all-capitalized word “LORD” in our Bibles is what is known to be God’s personal covenantal Name. We will deal with what it means and how it is spelt in Hebrew in one of our presentations. For now suffice it to say that this Name of our Mighty God is inseparably linked to His chosen people, Israel. Hence, the frequent mention of the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Interestingly enough, my Christian friends have come to believe that the Church has superseded Israel as God’s Light unto the Gentiles, thus applying this passage to themselves and their respective denominations. All of them agree, of course, that the text of Isaiah 42 may also speak of Israel’s Messiah as the preeminent exemplar of such a Light.
However, whether you choose to treat this and other similar passages as applying to Israel's Messiah or the Jewish nation, only those who believe, worship, obey and lead others to the One LORD God of Israel may qualify for that exalted title. This criterion undoubtedly leaves the 99.99% of the Church out of the equation!
Even much of the so-called Messianic Jewish movement today, one of whose representatives is the organization called “Jews for Jesus,” are no different from the rest of Christendom in terms of their allegiance to the god of the Roman Catholic Church, “the Most Blessed Holy Trinity.” How they manage to justify their faith in a multi-headed idol of Trinity in light of Israel’s and Jesus’ loyalty to the Holy One of Jacob beats me every time I think about it!
Apparently God knew all along that we humans are ever so fickle in our allegiances and loyalties and that we would inevitably create our own gods, fashioned according to our own ideas and imaginations. Ask around and see, inquire at your churches and realize that virtually no Christian denomination on the face of the Earth today calls the apostate world back to the One True God, described in His own Word as the Rock of Israel.
Where is the Truth?
We live in the world of many voices and countless opinions, all clamoring for our time, devotion, attention and resources. Take religions, for instance. There are approximately 20-21 major religions in the world today, with many more groups that have not been classified among them. The world religions range from Judaism to Islam and Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and a host of others.
While the majority of these groups may be of marginal spiritual interest to many of those who have studied their foundational premises and ideologies, the three so-called Abrahamic religions have captivated the hearts and minds of billions of people to date. Christianity and Islam alone claim fidelity of more than half of the world’s population at this point in time.
These three expressions of faith hold a special interest to a spiritually astute individual because they enjoy a somewhat familial relationship among themselves. Both Christianity and Islam claim Judaism as a distinctive starting point for their “progressive revelation” and the roots for their own unique beliefs.
While billions of my Christian friends around the world would be quick to point out the fact that Islam is not a true faith from God, precisely because they worship Allah, disregard Jesus as the Son of God and have their own Book, called Quran, they are almost completely unaware that, for all intents and purposes, Christianity has long ceased to be the same faith as espoused even by its founder Jesus Christ and have blossomed into a separate religious identity as well!
The world-wide Christian church today, be it Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist, and all the other denominations and their splinter groups in between, have ceased to have the same connection with the faith of Abraham Isaac, and Jacob, David and Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Malachi as did Jesus of Nazareth and all of His original disciples. Have you ever thought of that?
A True Jew . . .
Jesus of Nazareth, for example, whose name, by the way, was most likely pronounced as “Yehoshua,” stood in harmony with all the genuine prophets of God of Israel, calling both the chosen nation and spiritually-sensitive Gentiles to covenantal obedience and Torah observance of the One Living God of Jacob.
Let’s take a glimpse at His teachings: “Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.” (Mark 12:28-30)
Please, notice that just prior to making this powerful statement underscoring his own faithfulness to the LORD God of Israel, Jesus called him “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob.”
As we study together, we will get to see where and when the Church chose to become what it is today. We will uncover historic and spiritual circumstances of how the Gentile Church erected her own theological idol of Trinity, created her own worship and feast days and have made the entire world drunk with the wine of her fornication” (Even the Christian book of Revelation seems to be speaking of it!):
“For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” (Revelation 18:3-5)
Now, friends, neither you nor I want to be part to anything that the LORD hates and is about to destroy. That’s why we are glad you have joined us on the path of learning and discovery! Our journey through the Word of God, the history of the world and its church promises to be nothing short of fascinating. So, pull up your theological socks, put on your Bible-thinking cap and buckle up your arm-chair theologian’s belts. May the LORD teach us from His Word! May the Holy One of Israel bless you and keep you! Amen!
Notes:
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[1] “HaShem” is Hebrew for “the Name.” It is used by the Jewish people out of reverence for the Divine Name.
[2] Polytheism is worship of more than One God. Except for the Jews, Muslims and very few Monotheistic Messianic sects, the rest of the world is quite polytheistic today.
[3] Syncretism is an attempt to combine worship of One God alongside revering other deities or spirits. Due to its belief in Trinity, Christianity may classify as either polytheistic religion or a type of syncretism!
